


Agender Ganma universe ficlets

by Estirose



Category: Kamen Rider Ghost
Genre: Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-02 02:22:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 5,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10207019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: Collecting my "Agender Ganma" universe ficlets in one place.(Note: some of the later entries include a form of mpreg.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In the Agender Ganma universe, the Ganma are not as in canon, but essentially born as Eyecons without any gender. Takeru has closed the gateway to the Ganma world, and Alain is stuck in the human world.

"I think there's something happening," Candide said, in the language that the three of them shared. Alexis nodded, form bobbing up and down in the air.

Chiyo looked at her siblings. She was the only one of the three that normal people could see by default, unless the other two made themselves visible. She'd sometimes envied that, especially when she didn't want to go to school or be in class. Of course, her father could see all of them regardless.

Candide and Alexis could both assume a humanoid form, but they didn't look human, so they normally just accompanied her to school and learned over her shoulder. Candide was a bit older than her, Ganma gestations being quite a bit shorter than human pregnancies, carried to term within their father's body. Which would have weirded most people out, because their father appeared male, and yet her siblings had been born that way.

"I agree," Alexis chimed in. They were working on schoolwork. Their mother had insisted that Alexis and Candide practice even if they couldn't live in normal human society. That way, the three of them could work together even if most people could only see one.

Their father tried to teach them how it would be like to live in Ganma society on the Ganma world. Chiyo wished sometimes that her siblings could go there to have a normal life for them, instead of having to practically stay with her. She herself had no desire to live there, given Ganma views, though she could probably survive in Ganma society.

"Maybe the seal is becoming undone?" she asked. After all, her family was tense, from their parents and uncle to her honorary aunt and uncles. Something was happening that they didn't want to tell Chiyo, Alexis, and Candide.

"Maybe," Candide allowed.

It was good news and bad. Good for her siblings, bad for the world. If the Ganma could reach Earth again, there was a good chance that they'd try to invade. Her family would fight back, protect the Earth, though it would pain her Uncle Takeru, who only wanted peace between the two.

Her mother had told her that Uncle Takeru had been the happiest when each of the three of them had been born, unions between human and Ganma. It hadn't mattered to him how each of them had been born, either out of their mother or their father.

"Let's find out," Alexis said, and Chiyo nodded. Candide bobbed. They'd always tried to act in consensus. It was, in some ways, an important way in both of their worlds.

Chiyo got up, and not looking back, knew that her siblings would follow.


	2. Chapter 2

akeru never thought a Ganma Eyecon could look cute. He thought, maybe, that it was bias; this was Kanon and Alain's kid, and even if said kid had come out of Alain - who was not as male as Takeru had previously thought - it was still a kid. 

Alain had been pretty much ready to release it into the wild without ceremony, but the rest of them had stepped in and protested. It was why Candide now had a name, and a set of family members that it could come to. Even if it was an adult in some ways, thanks to a genetic memory of sorts, it still didn't know how to function in a world that it couldn't really touch. Hopefully Kanon's baby would be able to be its companion, its hands of sorts in the human world.

"Come on, Candide," he said, figuring that the Eyecon would enjoy learning more about its new world. Even if Alain didn't know what to do with his new child, and Takeru wasn't quite sure himself, he would teach Candide what Candide needed to survive.


	3. Chapter 3

Chiyo yells something that Kanon can't understand. She knows it's not because Chiyo needs speech therapy, but because Chiyo and her siblings are growing up speaking a variant of lower Ganma language. Alain can sometimes understand it if Chiyo or her siblings slow down.

Kanon isn't sure how much Ganma she wants her children to be. It's why Candide and Alexis go to kindergarten with Chiyo, so that they can learn human ways of interacting. No matter how much she loves Alain, she doesn't want her kids picking up Ganma attitudes. 

Chiyo is at least careful about where she talks in the strange little tongue. Her teachers haven't asked Kanon or Alain about any strange language use. Kanon knows that the language helps tie Candide and Alexis to the human world. 

Someday, Alain thinks, Candide and Alexis might be able to assume human form, probably by imitating Chiyo's. But they're not there yet, no matter how much she wants them to be. She loves them as much as she would if she had birthed them herself, and she wants the best for them.

Just like any mother would, even if the circumstances were a bit odd. Even if they're more Alain's children than hers.

So Kanon does her best to be a human mother to three kids, even if the rest of the world sees only one, because she loves them.


	4. Chapter 4

"Can I ask you something, Uncle?" Candide asked, causing Takeru to look up. "Ratin told me you might know."

Takeru nodded, able to guess what the topic had been about. Alain had surprised everyone - to put it mildly - during a family conversation over food, and Makoto had practically stomped off after the meal.

"Is it about what happened earlier?" Takeru asked.

Candide bobbed, his best approximation of a nod. Takeru couldn't blame the youngster for being confused; when Ganma and human cultural norms clashed, especially over the topic in question, adult humans and Ganma got confused too and Candide was relying on a kind of genetic memory to function.

"Ratin and Gonta couldn't explain it," Candide told him.

"It is hard," he acknowledged. "Sometimes words don't translate too well between your Gonta and our world."

"Like Ratin doesn't like being called 'father'?" Candide asked.

Takeru remembered that explanation and Kanon's reaction to being called a father. "Because of human gender differences, she wasn't comfortable with that. But because 'ratin' means something a little different, she doesn't mind you calling her that."

It meant 'the/a parent that doesn't gestate the child' in the Ganma language, where "gonta" denoted 'the parent that gestates the child'. It was nowhere near 'father' and 'mother', except in the generic sense. But Kanon had accepted it because the meaning was different.

Candide bobbed up and down, accepting the answer.

"In your Gonta's world, people don't keep track of someone's parents. Here, we do." It was what made humans better, in some ways. "We keep track and we raise our children, if possible, but it works differently there." He sighed. He'd wanted to like the Ganma world, but in the end, he'd had to seal it away because its inhabitants were so dangerous to Earth. "Your Uncle Makoto was upset because your Gonta never told him that he was a ratin to one of Gonta's children." Among other things. "Your Gonta didn't tell him because he didn't think it was important, but it was important to your Uncle Makoto. Different cultures have different ways of doing things, and sometimes it makes people upset."

Onari had speculated, based on what Alain had told him, that the Ganma created souls that would eventually come to Earth and be born as humans. And then, after they died, sometimes they came home. Makoto had been upset to learn that he had essentially sired at least one child on his male-looking brother-in-law. Takeru had actually been sympathetic to Alain after the shock wore off - at the time, Alain didn't know the importance of family to humans, so he had a good excuse for not knowing the fate of his child or children. Hopefully for Makoto's sake, the child or children had been reborn as human souls in human bodies so that they weren't trapped in the Ganma world.

He wondered what Kanon thought - it had been quite a shock to find out that she herself had 'fathered' a child on her husband, back when Candide had been born. To find out that Candide and Kanon's unborn child had cousins that were also half-siblings to them probably wasn't easy to digest - he had a hard time getting his mind around the concept himself - probably wasn't easy on her, though it was probably easier than when Candide had emerged from Alain's chest.

"Oh," Candide said, in the tone that said he was considering what Takeru had said.

"If you have questions, come back to me." Takeru smiled at the Eyecon, watching Candide absentmindedly float off. It was something not easy to deal with, but they'd eventually figure it out. Eventually.


	5. Chapter 5

"So, why don't you want to tell Dad?" Candide asked, leaning forward. The face could have been a twin to her own, only more masculine, and the only reason that Candide looked that way was because he'd copied her appearance.

Chiyo gazed into the faces of her two siblings and wished it was that easy to explain. "Maybe I'm being petty." She was probably being petty, but at the moment it felt good. "But Dad's going to be insufferable for a week when he finds out." She was not genderless like the two of them, but her father would consider her such because of what the doctor had said. Not that the doctor knew anything about it and it was hardly his fault that her father would be inordinately proud.

"But it's not a bad thing, is it?" Alexis asked. "We're all that he really has. The fact that you're more like him than he thought is something that might bring him some comfort."

Her father was not human, though his appearance made it seem like he was. He could be arrogant about his homeworld, about his people being superior to humans. He was getting better, her family had said, about not treating his new human family as inferior based on the fact that they were not his kind. Chiyo had the sense that he'd been disappointed that she'd been so human when she carried his blood.

Still, Alexis was not completely incorrect. Some of that had to be based on homesickness, on having to adapt to a new culture and only seeing his own kind in his children and the family of the one other person who had willingly chosen exile from their homeworld. He wanted his children to be like him.

Chiyo had seen the strain that had caused with her human family. Maybe it was being contrary, but she didn't want to be like him. Maybe she wanted him to be disappointed in her.

Maybe she just wanted to pretend that she was normal.

"He's got you two." He'd expect her to follow in his world's traditions, something he hadn't bothered with because she took after her mother in all but looks. 

"He could have all three of us. He's lonely, can't you see that?" There was a hint of frustration in Alexis' expression. "You, me, and Candide."

"And Gazai and Gako," Candide reminded Alexis. "But still, there's not many of us around."

"In any case," Alexis continued, as if Candide hadn't interrupted with the names of the only other family from their father's homeworld, "Don't you think you're being unreasonable?"

She desperately wanted to rebut that she hadn't asked to be born into this family, with this blood. Not that, for all the arguments, she'd trade Candide and Alexis for anything. They were her siblings, after all. 

"She's got a point," Candide told Chiyo. "He should know. It's only right."

"It's something that's also kind of private." Chiyo scowled back at her little sister. 

"And something that I think he kind of suspects." Candide leaned back. "It would mean the world to him, Chiyo."

Candide was correct again, much as Chiyo wished otherwise. He had probably guessed, and she knew it was only a matter of time before he found out for sure. Better get the insufferable part over with and get on with her life. "Okay." 

She was probably going to regret it, but she really didn't have a choice. Perhaps someday she'd be able to follow her dreams, but in the meantime it looked like she'd have to follow her family's.


	6. Chapter 6

"Good afternoon." There was a twinkle in the woman's eyes as she greeted Chiyo. She wasn't sure why the woman seemed to be seeking her out, considering how crowded the park was. Candide and Alexis were with her, but most full-blooded humans couldn't see her siblings. Even if Candide and Alexis looked completely human, they still preferred that she interacted with people. 

"Good afternoon," Chiyo said politely. She knew that behind her, her siblings were watching out for Ganma, their kin. Most humans didn't know that there was an invasion going on. It wasn't unknown for Ganma to possess people, and Chiyo had been warned to get out of someplace if it looked like her kin were in the area. She could see Ganma where most couldn't, and it was dangerous for her if she stared at the wrong being for a long time. Mostly because she could be mistaken for a human and have her body killed. It wouldn't kill her completely, just force her into Eyecon form. She knew there was a way for her to take over another Ganma's body, but she didn't know the specifics.

"I'd like to talk to you." There was warmth in the woman's voice, but Chiyo could hear steel in it too. The woman was used to being in command; in some ways she reminded Chiyo of her father.

Ganma? Her father mentioned that he had those he called siblings, though as far as anyone knew they weren't related to him.

"I believe there's space over there." Chiyo nodded towards an area that was somewhat hidden; enough for her to escape if needed.

"Thank you." There was a wider smile this time, as if this was exactly what the woman wanted too. Chiyo led the woman to the secluded area.

"What would you like to talk to me about?" Chiyo asked. She knew that Alexis and Candide were behind her. 

"I wanted to see my nieces and nephew," the woman said simply, and her eyes flickered towards where they shouldn't. "I'm your aunt Alia."

"Rara?" Candide asked, a clear question to Chiyo - should they drop their human guises and fly? Their code word was derived from both Japanese and Ganma, but only their father would have known how to interpret it.

"I - we've never met anybody on father's side," Chiyo said cautiously, answering both Alia's unspoken question and Candide's spoken one.

"You look like your father, all of you." Alia regarded the three of them with some gentle amusement. "I could tell that two of you couldn't be seen. What are your names?"

"I'm Chiyo." Chiyo saw no point in avoiding the question. "My older sibling is Candide, and my younger one is Alexis." This could be a trap, but it could be just a sympathetic "relative" on the Ganma side of the family wanting to see how their father was coping living in the human world.

Alia took Candide's chin, gently maneuvering his head around. "And some of Kanon in there too."

Chiyo must have looked surprised, or Alexis did, for Alia added, "I watched Kanon grow up. I know how she looks."

Ganma, even if being able to see Alexis and Candide made it obvious. And royal Ganma, which meant that the walls had thinned enough for her to make it through. If they got through this, their family would have to be warned.

"We're pleased to meet you, aunt," Chiyo said in the politest way possible. 

Alia dropped her hand off of Candide's chin. "Won't you come home with me?" she asked, though Chiyo had to wonder how much of a request and how much an order it was. They were part Ganma, after all. Technically speaking, Alia ruled over them.

"I couldn't fit in there." Chiyo smiled back. "But Candide and Alexis...." They could sneak in and sneak out. She could shift only with difficulty.

"Nonsense." Aunt Alia didn't seem to be put off by Chiyo's words at all. "You're all Ganma; I can tell Alain has done a good job in raising you." She switched to high Ganma in the second sentence. Chiyo was not sure how she understood, because it wasn't quite what she and the others spoke, but she did.

"But Gonta... made it clear he wasn't welcome back." Alexis spoke softly. "And that we wouldn't be welcome."

"I can't say that Alain will ever be welcome back," their aunt said, "But you are not Alain. And our father will want to meet his grandchildren."

She did not want to meet her 'grandfather', especially if it involved leaving Earth. "I think we'd want our Gonta with us." It was risky, but she didn't think going to the Ganma world was a good idea. "Besides, we're not really related, are we?"

That should permanently end any relationship that might have started. Not that one needed to be related to be an aunt or uncle.

"Is that what Alain told you?" Alia was laughing. "True, most family lines aren't tracked, but ours is an exception. It has to be. I know how many children I have and the scientists can find them if they need to. Your grandfather is really your grandfather. And I'm sure he'll want to meet you."

There was a way to find their missing cousins and any full siblings in case any existed. Her uncle Makoto might be glad to hear of that, at least somewhat.

"Maybe someday, when the Ganma have taken over Earth." In other words, never. 

Aunt Alia smiled at her, as if that was a foregone conclusion. "Of course." Of course Chiyo and her siblings would meet their family. Because of course her human kin wouldn't stop them someday.

She knew without looking that this was something she'd have to discuss with her siblings. Whether Candide and Alexis wanted to live in a world where they could be a full part.

But this was not the moment. Aunt Alia leaned in and kissed Candide on the cheek, following up with Chiyo and Alexis. "You'll be home someday," Alia said, and walked off, leaving Chiyo and the others to watch.

"We're not going without you," Candide said without prompting. "That's not our world."

"But you could live there okay."

"And be part of the Ganma who would take away our world from us? No." Candide obviously felt strongly. 

"We don't want to be part of the world that turned Gonta away." Alexis strode forward. "We'd be tracked because of our bloodline anyway. You heard what she said."

"We'd be expected to help lead an invasion." Candide hadn't moved, as far as Chiyo could tell. "Can you see them passing that up? We know how humans work. We're the equivalent of royal blood. We need to fly back asap and tell Gonta and the others what happened. It's the only way to keep us safe."

It made sense. Chiyo was awkward at flying, but what had to be done had to be done. Besides, it was more or less a consensus between the three of them, the way they'd always decided. "Help me change."

And they did. Because it was how they did things.


	7. Chapter 7

Javel glanced at his master Adel as the guards opened the door to the throne room. Both of them had been summoned, much to his surprise; he figured that the current invasion had something to do with it. Or the fact that his master's older sibling Alia had recently been in the human world and had something to report that Adel had to hear.

In the throne room, he took a quick glance around. The Emperor was there, along with Alia. A servant was there, almost invisible in the white room. Alia was looking calmly smug, a look that Javel wanted to wipe off of her face.

"Father." Adel bowed, and Javel with him. Adel had shown him the way once more, to use what they had to do to keep an advantage. Learn what Alia had found, turn it to their advantage.

"I think you need to hear what Alia has to tell you." The Emperor gestured at Alia, who bowed her head.

"Alain has children," Alia said. Javel boggled for a moment on why that was so important. Did it really matter if the traitor had children? It wasn't like any of their kind would care. "I ran into them while I was visiting."

How she could tell, Javel had no clue. If they were Ganma, Javel's own people, they should be indistinguishable from the default form of the invasion forces. If human, indistinguishable from the people of that world. How could she pick them out?

He supposed it was why she felt smug. He was also sure that Adel would figure out a way to show her up.

"How can you be so sure?" Adel asked, a move surely meant to throw Alia's abilities into question.

"They look like Alain." She touched a control in her hand, and a screen on the wall came to life. "There they are. Two of them are invisible to humans, and they all behave like Ganma."

Javel had to admit, they looked quite a lot like Alain. Probably something about the nose, the same arrogant look their father had. Like most humans, they had aged too fast - they looked like young adults when they should barely be walking. Not that any of it really mattered. When his master conquered the human world, they'd be dead just like their father. 

"Hmm." Adel looked thoughtful. "I assume you want them here."

The Emperor gave Adel a nod.

"I'll start immediately, then." Adel bowed, and after a second, Javel did the same. With a wave of his hand, the Emperor dismissed them.

"Sir?" Javel asked as soon as they were someplace nobody could hear.

"We should have known of them first," Adel said, and his voice was tight. Javel could only bow; it was a failure of his intelligence operatives that they hadn't. Adel spoke again, ignorant of Javel's feelings. "But it doesn't matter. I can see father's plan. Alain - or his compatriots - won't want to seal us away from Earth when his children are with us."

Hostages. Shove them into some room for a while, maybe parade them in front of a camera if needed be. Perhaps they would need to be fed, too. It really didn't matter. Whatever needed to be done would be done. 

It wouldn't be forever. This time, they would conquer Earth, and then the lives of their hostages wouldn't matter.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another chapter handling the side events of "A Dance We Do", and technically features mpreg.

"Bedrest." Jeannot practically shoved Haru down on the bed. It had been barely a week and a half since he'd asked Jeannot to serve as ratin in their mating. To his surprise, Jeannot had needed no orders to come live at the temple and watch over him. Apparently Jeannot knew that possible consequences of the whole idea - his gonta had watched over Haru's dad, of course, when his dad was carrying Gako.

"I'm not tired." He did feel a little shaky, but he wasn't sleepy. There was a difference.

"Your gonta said that you needed bedrest. My gonta told me to follow their opinion." Jeannot was gritting teeth, Haru could tell. "Our leader said that you had to be watched over carefully because you are fragile. This is why you will get into bed and rest."

"Jeannot, I know what I was getting myself into, I know what my mother said. Could you please just back off? I will rest when it is time." He sat down on the futon. "I might be fragile, but I am part of our group and have an idea of what I need to do."

The other growled. "The only reason I agreed to your choice is that if you insisted on going through the *experience* of being a gonta I could make sure no permanent damage was done. I thought, that with your gonta that you would take reasonable care of yourself."

"I am taking reasonable care of myself. I've limited my activities, I'm taking extra time to do things, I know my limitations." Hopefully Gako would be able to get out of there soon and check up on Chiyo before he went mad. "I don't agree that it's time for me to be on total bedrest."

"If your gonta says you should be on bedrest, then you will be on bedrest." Jeannot shoved Haru down again. 

"I discussed this whole idea with my parents before I approached you. My father warned me of the effects. My mother made sure I was healthy and counseled me on what I might be facing. I'm sure she'd agree that while I need rest, it doesn't make sense to consign me to a bed."

"Your ratin was not part of our generation." Jeannot pressed him down. "We are expected to produce many children. You are expected to participate. You cannot participate - even as a ratin - if you are not careful now."

He'd known how fantatic Jeannot and his gonta were. He should have expected something of the sort. He realized for Chiyo's sake that he had to keep Jeannot occupied, but it was hard. His father had not been put on bedrest until later on, but Haru was a breeder per Alexis, so his health was monitored much more. Or at least that's what Gako's ratin had told him about what was expected of a breeder. Eventually he would become worker caste by Ganma standards, but the breeder designation came first.

There weren't uncooperative breeders in the Ganma world. Soldiers didn't normally come in contact with them, and Jeannot was a soldier. 

"You're right." Jeannot looked surprised at his words. "I don't feel tired now, but if I'm to fulfil my duty, I have to be careful."

"Surprisingly reasonable for your family." Jeannot helped him pull up his covers. He didn't need the help, but better to keep Jeannot distracted.

"I've always had to be the responsible one of my siblings." That was true, at least. "That's why I chose someone else responsible when I chose to be a gonta. I still find myself to be impulsive, even when I try to take after my mother."

Jeannot nodded. "Ah. So you were planning for moments like these when you become irrational."

"Yes. I may try to rationalize my way out of bedrest, but I know I'll have to be on it." He was not looking forward to that - getting to the point where he'd barely feel like getting out of bed because his child was occupying so much of his energy. "Whatever my mother says."

"I hold the memories of what happened the last time a human male became gonta. I will make sure that you can't hurt yourself in your irrational periods."

It sounded so genuine, probably because it was. As much as Haru knew that Jeannot would drive him crazy over the next few weeks, at least he would do it for reasons that he believed in.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is related to "A Dance We Do", and mentions a form of mpreg.

"So, we've got Alexis and Candide covered so they don't interfere. What about Jeannot?" Gako turned towards her younger half-brother. "How do we handle Jeannot?"

Jeannot would be a problem. Jeannot was just fanatical enough that Gako might not be able to get away easily.

"Well, I was thinking," Haru said. "It would be hard to distract Jeannot - unless he was under orders to stay here and pay attention to something. And why shouldn't that be a gestating me?"

"You want to mate with Jeannot?" She knew that Haru had wanted to be one of them ever since he was little, but to gestate? Did he know how that would be? The only male human who had gestated to term so far was Haru's father, who was her gonta. Nobody else had wanted to, sensibly, seeing what gonta had gone through to have her. He'd been extremely tired to the point of mandatory bedrest for the last two or three weeks of the events, and even after he'd been forbidden from anything strenuous for a few days. Even if carrying Gako to term hadn't caused him any lasting physical damage, she knew that he'd been too tired to take care of himself well, as if he'd been deeply depressed.

She loved her brother too much to put him through that - especially with Jeannot, who would only care that Haru was advancing what there was of the Ganma agenda, breeding another generation, a bigger one. They'd all grown up with the expectation that they'd take part, though Gako doubted that Alain would have wanted Haru to be a gonta.

"Not really." Haru gave her a grin. "But if it's Jeannot's partial fault - because Jeannot didn't say no - there might be orders. And if you and dad and mom complained, I'm sure that there would be. And then Jeannot'd be stuck making sure I ate and went to the restroom and was protected while I carried a new life inside me."

She couldn't imagine volunteering to be in that kind of state. And she could tell, though Haru tried to hide it, that Haru wasn't keen on doing this either. But Chiyo deserved peace. "Do you really want to have Jeannot hanging around you for a month? I couldn't stand him hanging around me for a day."

"The scarier thing to me is having to go in and mate. I've got others to act as a buffer, at least unless Jeannot and his gonta convince the prince that I need to be there at their home for maximum care." Haru at least paled a bit at that idea. "Hopefully Dad can argue them out of that, too."

She hoped so.


	10. Chapter 10

She'd never been to a beach like this before. Chiyo looked over at her girlfriend Gako as the other smiled back at her. Chiyo wished that she had her memories back, but being with Gako was the next best thing.

"It's nice to be here," she said idly. The sun was shining, and the water looked deep blue from where she stood. This place was so unlike the beaches she'd been to in her homeland of Japan. "Will Haru and Comede be joining us soon?"

"Yes." Gako smiled at her. Chiyo liked Gako's famly - her parents, both adoptive and biological, her younger half-brother Haru, and Haru's child Comede. It was a bit odd, still, to have so many relatives that weren't human - at least not fully. Of course, she wasn't full human either. Haru was the only full of the bunch, and that was because his parents were both humans too.

"Good. This place is much different than home." She'd felt closed in at home, with the whole set of events that had caused her to lose her memories.

"We can relax and just be ourselves for once. I'll want to do some painting, but...." Gako threw an arm around Chiyo's shoulders.

Gako painted more realistically than her father, who painted more cubist and unrealistic. There was a reason, after all, that her father's nickname was "Cubi".

"Stay with me?" Chiyo asked. It was hard not to feel uncertain sometimes, though Gako assured her that they'd been close as childhood friends before they became girlfriends.

"Always." Gako grinned, and then her grin faded. "Are you okay?"

"Not... really? Sometimes, I mean. I just... this feels weird. Going to the beach, no responsibilities...."

It was so different at home, where she was assumed to be her father's heir apparent, because she was the only one of her siblings that most people could see.

"It's okay. Everybody needs a rest once in a while." She waved at someone that Chiyo couldn't see, presumably Haru and Comede. 

A minute or two later and Haru and Comede were with them. Haru and Gako definitely looked related, given that Gako had assumed a blend of her father's form, Haru's, and Haru's mother Akari's. Comede had assumed a blend of Haru's looks and his father's, and Chiyo had to admit he looked handsome. But then again, Jeannot wasn't bad-looking when he was smiling. Which had to be extremely rare.

Sometimes she wished that she hadn't been found, though. She sometimes missed her life before Gako and Jeannot had come.

"Have we missed anything?" Haru asked, and Gako laughed.

"Not much," Gako told him. "Just me and Chiyo being together."

"Mating?" Comede asked, his eyes brightening. Comede was still young, after all. He wouldn't have come if it hadn't been for Haru.

"No, Comede," Haru said patiently. "Come on, let's get set up."

"I think that's a good idea too," Chiyo said. After all, they had come to relax, to get away for a while.

In the end, she reflected, she really needed it.


	11. Chapter 11

"I don't get this." Chiyo looked at her siblings quietly. "Do you get this?"

"This" was her homework. Having two siblings that couldn't be seen was sometimes an advantage, sometimes not. In this case, they'd all been in class, and the three of them had listened to the teacher as she'd tried to explain the math problem. Math was not Chiyo's strong point; Alexis was much better at it than she was.

"I do." Alexis reached out to run a finger along the problem. "You're solving y for x. Look here...." She took a pencil and started writing down the steps, just as the teacher had taught them.

Chiyo sighed. Alexis made it seem so easy sometimes, and she was okay with that most of the time. "I should be able to get this." She was the one expected to understand, because she was the one who could be seen of the three of them. Her math teacher - all her teachers - had no idea that there were two extra students in the classroom.

"You'll get the hang of it." Alexis would have flashed her a smile if she was able. But the standard Ganma form didn't allow for expressions, and she still had trouble assuming a human-looking form. Not that Chiyo minded, because her sister's human form looked like a slightly younger version of her. Her siblings had no human forms of their own, just Ganma ones, so they both copied her. Candide looked like a male twin of hers instead of really looking like a fraternal sibling.

Sometimes she was so glad that she was the only one who could be seen.

"Let me make sure I understand it as well." Candide shifted to his more humanlike form, startling Chiyo. "So, if you're solving for y...."

Chiyo watched him struggle through the equation, glad that she wasn't the only one with a problem with it. Alhough he was solving for y instead of x like the problem said, she had to admit. Both of her siblings were better at the math thing than she was.

"Let me try the next one," she said. "I'm the one that has the test. And the one that has to get a passing score."

"Of course." Alexis backed up a bit and shifted to her own humanlike form. She sat back and let Chiyo try the equation.

Chiyo worked through the problem. She had to admit that Alexis' explanation helped, and the problem was easier to solve. She was able to work through the equation, solving for x.

"That was much easier," she said. "Thanks, Alexis."

"We all have to work together," Alexis said. "If you don't get it, we don't advance either. That's how things work."

Chiyo nodded. That was the way things worked for them, after all, and she doubted that it would ever change.


End file.
